Quinta de Soalheiro

Prenota un'Esperienza

Cantina e Vini

As far as our memory goes, Alvarinho was always present in our Territory. In our region, grapevines were traditionally planted around the outskirts of a parcel, with grains cultivated in the centre. In 1974, João António Cerdeira and his parents, António Esteves Ferreira and Maria Cerdeira, decided to break from tradition and plant a full parcel as a continuous vineyard of Alvarinho. Since this first innovation of João António, our family has been linked to the development of Alvarinho cultivation in Melgaço.

Today, third-generation family members, siblings Maria João and António Luís, along with their mother Maria Palmira Cerdeira, have embraced this spirit of innovation. António Luís, with a graduate degree in oenology, has built a profound knowledge of the Alvarinho grape variety throughout his life. Maria João, a veterinarian by profession, assumed the responsibility for viticulture and successfully introduced organic farming into our vineyards.

Our innovative vision extends to the Territory and includes the sustainable revitalisation of the surrounding rural area. This has led us to invest in wine tourism and, most recently, in herbal tea production.

The Monção and Melgaço region, at the northernmost point of Portugal, is one of the nine sub-regions of Vinho Verde DOC. It has a very distinct microclimate, spread around the hillsides on the south bank of the Minho river. This Vinho Verde subregion is where the Alvarinho varietal has its origin and where it started its evolution.

Our brand name – Soalheiro, meaning ‘sunny’ – arises from the excellent sun exposure of the vineyards next to the winery. This is true for the rest of our vineyards too, because of the natural factors present in Monção and Melgaço.

Our region, at the northernmost point of Portugal, is protected from Atlantic influence by a range of mountains, providing optimal conditions for the growth of Alvarinho. That is, a large difference in temperature between the warm days and cold nights during maturation and the perfect amount of rain and sunshine. These are important conditions necessary for the protection of varietal aromas and preserving freshness.

The microclimate of Monção and Melgaço, conditioned by the mountains present in the region, is characterised as an Atlantic temperate microclimate with continental influence, featuring cold and rainy winters and hot and dry summers.

Historically, Vinho Verde has always been densely populated because of the fertility of the land, resulting that the size of land per family would be very small. This distinctive characteristic is still true in our Territory in Monção and Melgaço, where the parcels of vineyards remain very small. These plots are therefore treated like gardens by the families that, other than grape-growing, have other professional occupations and take care of their vineyards at the end of the working day and on weekends. Our story is the story of one of these families that created lifelong partnerships with other families in the region —the story of one vineyard that is now a Territory.

In 2006 we had all of our vineyards certified as organic/biological agriculture. This was a pioneering initiation in our region. It is exclusively the fruit from these vines that we use to produce Soalheiro Terramatter and Soalheiro Nature. To this day, our winegrowing practices promote environmental sustainability and support biodiversity in our viticultural ecosystems, not only in our own vineyards but also spreading the same spirit to our producers’ club. In 2021 we will take another big step, moving forward with the knowledge we already have and converting to biodynamic concepts.

Soalheiro has been evolving steadily. The recently refurbished winery creates a space that optimises its winemaking capacity, with specific sections dedicated to fermentation and ageing, maintaining ideal conditions for the wines to express their unique character. Every tiny, but essential, detail is carefully considered in order to ensure consistent quality. The winery is a space that functionally respects winegrowing and winemaking traditions while opening its doors to new and creative styles of wine production. One of the most important features is a special place for innovation where our team and our winemaker can discover new wines and processes. Here we also invite friends to realize their dreams, with our help, through a special incubator project.

Alvarinho is the heart and soul of our operation and the centre of our wines. Through different labels, our goal is to express the varietal’s many personalities. We organize our diverse range of wines into several families: fruity, mineral, natural, sparkling, and a special category called ‘Innovation and Partnership’.